Friday, April 07, 2006
3:41 PM
I taught at a nearby neighbourhood secondary school last Thursday. Landed into two Secondary 1 Normal Technical classes first thing in the morning. Things gradually improved as the day went on; I taught a Secondary 4 Normal Academic class and a Secondary 4 Express class before the day ended.
The Normal Technical classes are a war zone I tell you. The school I went to actually employed 'teaching assistants' (it turns out they are old boys/girls who're waiting to go to Polytechnics for further studies) for Secondary 1 classes. And as I stepped into the first class for the day, there was a lady standing in the middle of the class struggling to say something in the sea of noise.
After announcing (mainly to herself) that I was the relief teacher for today and telling the class to please give me their attention and respect, she quietly came to me and helpfully explained that 'There are a few -very- destructive elements in this class. Do not confront or challenge them if they give you trouble, just send them away to the General Office'. And then she left the class.
If by destructive, she meant noisy, then the whole bloody class was extremely destructive, and yes they were giving me trouble, because I had to yell at the top of my voice before I could get their attention for a mere 3-5 seconds before I was drowned in the noise again. I wondered if I should've just sent the whole lot of them away to the General Office. And then there was the unecessary movement. At any one time, there would be at least two of them kids walking about in class or shifting their seats beside their buddies so that they could chatter away and make it even harder for me to even begin to teach them anything.
And then, of course, there's the famous 'eh, 'cher, 'cher, can go toilet?'. The same kid can ask to go toilet twice or three times in two periods (1 hour), and I don't recall seeing any of them drinking any water despite their yakking away through the lesson. I later found out that they went to the toilet mainly to 'wash their hands' and at the same time, use the water in their hands to spike their hair. So once the water on their heads dried, they'd be going 'eh, 'cher, 'cher, can go toilet?' again.
So there I was trying to teach them about population (the stop at 2 policy, free education, etc). I was supposed to get them to write a list of ways to increase a country's population. Immediately, shouts of 'premarital sex!' and 'don't use condoms' rang out. As I walked up to the ones who made the suggestion, they were already busily drawing pictures of condoms on the blank paper that I handed to them. Are these little monsters really only 13 years old?
Then all of a sudden, I heard a few loud bangs on a desk somewhere at the back of the class. One of the teaching assistants was involved in a scuffle with one of the students. Apparently, the teaching assistant spotted him playing with his handphone, so he wanted to confiscate it. However, the student refused to hand it over. So the teaching assistant snatched the student's bag from underneath his desk, and walked out of the classroom. When I inquired as to what was going on, the teaching assistant told me that he wanted the student to go with him to the General Office. So I was like, 'Ok carry on' and continued to try to get the rest of the class to do what they were supposed to do.
After another few minutes of walking around helping the students with their work, a short and stout man walked into the class in a huff, and the whole class fell dramatically into a deadly silence. It was the discipline master of the school. He entered into a tough-talking rough-sounding tirade for a good ten minutes or so. And this girl in the front row appeared to start sobbing after he mentioned something about caning. He left after threatening them to be silent for the remainder of the lesson, giving me an ambiguous pat on the back just as he passed me by.
Well, the class remained relatively silent for the duration that the discipline master was lurking around the block on his rounds. Once he left the area, the noise came back. But by that time, time was almost up.
...
The Secondary 4 Normal Academic class was better. They only quietly refused to do the homework they were assigned to do, quietly listened to ther discman and MP3 players while (if they were) doing their work, and quietly played with or watched movies on their handphones. All that (somewhat) innocent naughtiness has worn off by now, they've now matured into jaded disobedient punks who don't even bother to respond to your exhortations to do their work.
...
At the end of the day, as I was looking through some of the work the students submitted (3 out of the 4 classes I went to were assigned work to do through me), I noticed that among the drawings of condoms and horrible handwriting and answers, there was work that was done with a genuine interest in learning. A few of the Secondary 1 students actually bothered to take down very neatly, notes of what I taught them and wrote on the board on top of finishing what I asked them to do. And as for the Secondary 4 students, some of them diligently did all their homework; the effort they put in was very obvious through what they wrote.
Thus, it made me very sad to realise that such students are more or less condemned to a life with a sorry education and a bleak future. They could be late bloomers who are about to undergo an awesome intellectual awakening. Einstein was a famously late bloomer. He was so horrible in his mathematics when young, some of the mean things his teachers said about him are still being mentioned. However, the students I saw probably would never have the chance to discover any new theory in quantum physics.
Heck, it'd be a miracle for them to even rise above 'normalcy' to become 'express'! The longer they stay in the normal stream, the harder it becomes for them to learn anything at all. It's a vicious cycle. Well, anyways, there's not much a relief teacher for one day can do.
Comments:
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7 comment)
Yeah... I taught at * school for two days and I remember this guy very vividly- he was in sec 5- my age. His class was rowdy and he couldnt concentrate- but he tried his best - put up his hand whenever he didnt understand- and the interest in learning was there. I was upset after the episode cos this guy here really deserves a much much better learning environment. Sigh...
Jan
Jan
# posted by 
: 6:30 PM
: 6:30 PM
I think I'll just drop dead in the class room leh.. no wonder I can't be a teacher.. But I think teachers are really noble especially those form teachers of NT classes and those bengs and lians always go back to school to visit the teachers.
# posted by : 10:37 AM
: 10:37 AM
yup, i haven't broken any agreement yet, though i've not exactly signed a real contract either.
and it's not a job. it was just one day.
and it's not a job. it was just one day.
# posted by : 8:57 PM
: 8:57 PM
Hmm the lousier the place the more they need a good teacher... Dun lose heart =) Pray that you'll be a teacher that is able to impact them with good values =)
# posted by : 6:20 PM
: 6:20 PM
Conditioned education, indoctrination. Yes, there's so little educational stimulation. Not much can be done in a day at all.
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# posted by : 8:31 PM
: 8:31 PM